MANILA – As tensions rage and tangle over disputed areas of the sea, Spanish authorities are turning their attention to alleged Chinese influence operations aimed at tracing down and monitoring important installations and structures on Philippine soil.
Legislators from north Spanish provinces have lately sounded the alarm over the immediate, significant flood of Chinese learners into Cagayan, which has just been ruled by an openly pro-Beijing governor.
However, the intriguing situation of Alice Guo, a recently elected president in a small town close to Clark Air Base and other important military installations, has sparked public concern about possible Chinese” sleeper cell” agents stationed at or close to various strategically important locations throughout the nation.  ,
Major Spanish authorities are now openly advocating for the expulsion of Taiwanese diplomats reportedly involved in influence operations on Asian soil, which have officially targeted not less than a major Philippine admiral, adding to the paranoia and fear.
The result is a worrying and swift decline in diplomatic diplomatic relations as the two parties drift toward a possible military conflict in the South China Sea, a conflict that could quickly entice the US and its supporters into the fray.
When Chinese online gaming companies, officially known as Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations ( POGOs ), started popping up near strategically important locations across Metro Manila under the leadership of Beijing Rodrigo Duterte, concerns about China’s influence operations in the Philippines were first raised.
Around several important Asian bases, including Camp Aguinaldo, where the Philippine Army and the National Defense Department’s workplaces are located, Camp Crame, where the Philippine National Police’s headquarter is located, and the Philippine Air Force and Navy’s and headquarters, were a total of 130, 000 Foreign workers and virtual casino operators.
Then- national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon warned at the time that a large number of Chinese citizens, many of whom were reputedly “undocumented” or entered the country under “false documentation”, posed a national security threat.
The Philippine national security chief warned in 2019 that “you’d start getting worried when a whole building, condominium, tower is occupied by just one nationality.”” Some unwelcome activities could transpire there, so we need to prevent those,” he added.
You would start to wonder what they are doing if you saw something like a rotation of people entering and leaving [of buildings in POGO areas ] every eight hours, he added, raising concerns about the opaque nature of the Chinese online casinos.
Delfin Lorenzana, the then-president of the Philippines, went so far as to openly advocate for the relocation of all Chinese online casinos into” self-contained hubs” far from crucial national security facilities.
” ]I ] t’s very easy for all these]Chinese ] people to perhaps shift their activities to spying…They are near]our military facilities ]”, the then- defense chief warned at the time.
The Duterte administration resisted suggestions for closing or moving the Chinese gambling dens because the POGOs generated an estimated US$ 4.1 billion between 2016 and 2019.
Interesting is that the pro-China leadership, which had vehemently opposed the proliferation of online casinos because they were frequently used as launching points for criminal activities targeting the mainland and beyond, even resisted pressure to close the POGOs.  ,
Fast forward to the present: the arrest of Bamban Mayor Alice Guo has sparked a new wave of concern over potential Chinese sleeper agents.
The small-town mayor had to work overtime to provide even the most basic documents, such as her birth certificate, school transcripts, and any tangible documentation of her immigration to the Philippines during a recent Senate hearing.
She has been accused of involvement in illegal Chinese casino activity, including having a relationship with the Hong Sheng Gaming Technology company, which was detained on suspicion of illegal operations in February of this year and given a new name in March of that year. Guo has denied the allegations.
” She lied. She lied in a number of questions. The fact that she denied having a connection with Hong Sheng when it was already stated in the municipal government’s document that she is the current head, according to Senator Risa Hontiveros, who presided over the hearing on Guo’s sensational case.
It” catches one’s attention,” especially because, according to our research, foreigners enter certain nations using a similar procedure. Eventually, they pretend to be locals and then do various tasks  , — some of which are not desirable”, the senator said, implying that Guo may be part of a Chinese influence operation.
In addition, Philippine authorities are looking into the rapid rise in the number of Chinese students in Cagayan, which, like Guo’s town of Bamban, houses important military installations.  ,
Authorities claim that in Cagayan province there are more than 4, 000 Chinese students enrolled in universities, an unusually high number given the relatively small number of urban centers and educational facilities in the northern province close to Taiwan.
A resolution earlier this year highlighting” an alarming increase in the number of Chinese citizens coming into the province of Cagayan as students enrolled in universities” was co-authored by Joseph Lara, a Cagayan representative, and Faustino Dy V, a representative from Isabela province, which also hosts Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement ( EDCA ) military sites used by US forces.
As the paranoia spreads, there is also growing scrutiny of Filipino individuals, especially military personnel, who were educated in China.
When China claimed to have a recording of a sworn special arrangement with Vice-Rear Admiral Alberto Carlos regarding disputed land features in the South China Sea, alarm bells rang out in particular.
He is the top Philippine naval commander in charge of the Philippines ‘ western islands and occupied features in the South China Sea, having previously attended a program under China’s People’s Liberation Army- Navy.  ,
Chinese authorities have openly called for the expulsion of Chinese diplomats who are alleged to be in violation of both domestic and international law, as well as the Chinese’s claims of a secret agreement, including transcripts of its supposed exchanges with the Philippine admiral.
In a provocative statement released last week, Philippine National Security Advisor Secretary Eduardo Ano said,” Those in the Chinese Embassy who have violated Philippine laws and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and those who have carried out these malign influence and interference operations must be removed from the country immediately.”  ,
Without a doubt, the embassy’s actions constitute serious violations of international relations and diplomatic relations, he said, citing the Philippines ‘ Anti-Wire Tapping Act in response to China’s alleged eavesdropping of confidential conversations with a top Philippine naval official.
Teodoro urged those responsible for recording the alleged conversation to be kicked out of the country on May 15 because their alleged deeds would contravene the country’s wiretapping laws.
Teodoro, the secretary of defense of the Philippines, has supported the arrest of Chinese diplomats who have been interrogated and engaged in deception. He said in Filipino,” We must find out who is accountable for this and remove them from the Republic of the Philippines.”
All indications point to a new and risky nadir in Philippine-China relations, one that could lead to tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions and increase the risk of miscalculation and potential deadly clashes in the South China Sea.
Follow Richard Javad Heydarian on X at @Richeydarian